Grant at Work

I’ve been having  fun with my gant money, it’s enabled me to take classes, buy materials and do things I didn’t think I would be able to do for a long time.  Spending a day with Andrea Graham in he studio felting was wonderful and really opened a brand new door for me creatively.

Here is a photo of my second felted piece, working with prefelt and some fun stuff from around Andrea’s studio.  Here it is soaking wet and lying on the bubble wrap that I ‘felted’ it on. I learned that first you very carefully felt under another surface, old nylon curtain ‘Grandma’s Curtain’ as Andrea calls it, or plastic. We didn’t use tons of water as I had thought so it was not messy.

This is a photograph of my finished piece on my back deck. It has some crazy knitting in it, some silk fabric, a long tail thing that Andrea made as a demo for me. Some fancy yarns, silk roving and pieced prefelt.  I love it and am so proud!!!!

 This mini collar was my first piece made with roving, I learned the difference between roving and batt. For me, really not a felt maker I will use prefelt to made pieces to add to my knitted jackets. I aiming for the Maker’s Hand show and for the One of a Kind in Toronto (I’m in the first five days).

I was so proud of this too as my first real felted work.

Detail of my ‘art’ piece.

 

 

In making a wraped jacket for the Art After Dark, not making a button or buttonhole meant I had to think of another closure for the front. I had knit it to allow for a good overlap so decided to try ‘sweater sticks’  of polymer clay and bamboo knitting needles.  Here’s what I came up with and so far they have been well recieved, I’m selling them at $15.

Here are my first five, I have fun making them too so it’s unstructured work unlike the knitting, especially custom orders!

I have one for the purple coat and one for a wrap I made for myself a year ago.

The big trip was to attend Inspiration ’09 in Cleveland put on by BT Yarns. Sue does a wonderful job each year since she took over from Bonnie Triola in Erie PA.

The main draw for me was Susan Lazear of Cochille, the software I use to aid in the technical//numbers side in my pattern making and executing my designs, much less paper and pencil stuff thank heaven. 

She had classes in knitting and fabric, combining the two, knock offs or how to make a pattern of some store bought garment you already have. We also worked on our laptops with Garment Designer… I really needed some brushing up, especially as I teach it.  And Stitch Painter. I got some nagging questions answered.

I picked my friend Sonja up in Toronto and then inched toward the border (awful traffic!!!). Nine hours there and nine back but I found that driving sitting very upright in my PT Cruiser (the ‘Knitmobile’ bought because a. I’ve always coveted them and b. with the  back seats out and the box on top I can load her up) was great for long distance and not tiring at all.

 

Susan talked about taking notes and even photos of things you are interested in while out clothing shopping. So here I am wearing a really neat coat in Saks and taking a photo of myself!

Now I’m back from that weekend, a show in Oakville (future post) and am turning my studio upside down to clear out some ‘stuff’ and make room for creativity! My DH has bought himself a new dresser for the bedroom and I get the old one for my studio … more storage than the antique dough box I had in there.

This just in: I’ve found the floor!!!!!!